Central Bank Watch

How the central banks in four major advanced economies have moved two key levers of monetary policy in recent years, and how two important economic indicators have responded.

U.S.

EUROZONE

U.K.

JAPAN

Interest-rate targets

Balance-sheet assets, percentage of GDP

Unemployment rate

Inflation

Notes: On Feb. 16, 2016, the Bank of Japan began to target a deposit rate of minus 0.1% on one tier of commercial-bank deposits at the central bank as its main policy rate. The BOJ stopped considering its uncollateralized overnight call rate as its policy rate April 4, 2013, when it also set an operational target to grow the yen's monetary base. On Sept. 21, 2016, the BOJ announced a rate target of ‘around zero percent’ for the yield of 10-year government bonds.
Assets are calculated as percentages of quarterly GDP; generally there is a one quarter lag between assets and GDP.
Unemployment rates are for civilians 15 (Eurozone) or 16 (all others) and older.
Inflation is the change from a year earlier in the price index for personal-consumption expenditures (U.S.) or consumer-price indexes (all others).
Changes in the European Central Bank’s interest-rate target are shown on the effective dates, not the dates of announcement.
Japan's inflation between April 2014 and March 2015 is elevated by an increase in the national sales tax. The Bank of Japan subtracts two percentage points from the reported rate to measure what it considers a more accurate reading of price trends.
Since Sept. 25, 2014, the Bank of England has stopped publishing full details of its balance sheet on a weekly basis.

Sources: National statistical agencies and central banks via the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Bank of England, U.K. Office of National Statistics, European Central Bank, Statistics Bureau of Japan (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications)